Shigeru Miyamoto, the iconic games designer behind Nintendo staples such as The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros is considering stepping down as head of the games creation division to focus on smaller projects within the company. It’s been reported that the visionary games maker has been talking openly to a games magazine about his future. Despite this coming from Miyamoto himself, Nintendo has responded to say it’s not true.
59-year old Miyamoto has headed the creation of Nintendo games from the very early days of NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) in the mid-80s up till today’s Wii home console and 3DS handheld and his influence is once again winning over gamers from the old school and the new in latest Wii Zelda title Skyward Sword, a whole new adventure which was launched just two weeks ago – Proving the man is still ahead of the game.
But a quote from his interview with Wired reads (as plain as day – via translation) “Inside our office, I’ve been recently declaring, ‘I’m going to retire, I’m going to retire”. I’m not saying that I’m going to retire from game development altogether. What I mean by retiring is, retiring from my current position.”
Nintendo were hasty to reply, issuing a statement which said Miyamoto won’t be giving up his current role, but will in addition to penning and designing games for the company he will guide young new talent. Nintendo’s call-back reads “Video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto’s role at Nintendo is not changing. He will continue to be a driving force in Nintendo’s development efforts. In discussing his priorities at Nintendo in a media interview, Mr. Miyamoto explained how he is encouraging the younger developers at the company to take more initiative and responsibility for developing software. He attempted to convey his priorities moving forward, inclusive of overseeing all video game development and ensuring the quality of all products. Mr. Miyamoto also discussed his desire to pursue fresh ideas and experiences of the kind that sparked his initial interest in video games.”
Nintendo is far from the top of the market when it comes to graphic quality in its games, so depend on solid storytelling and endearing characters, and we all know and have enjoyed Miyamoto’s imaginative and innovative work on titles the likes of Kid Icarus, Donkey Kong and the epic The Legend of Zelda. His direction has always been one the rewards through enjoyable gameplay rather than from rushed, repetitive gaming to garner the highest scores. And all of the games Shigeru has worked on have been just that – a rewarding experience. We hope that some of his creativity does rub off onto the new generation of games designer before he does in fact step down and imagine that, like us, Nintendo are keen to have him stay where is.
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